Fishing
by I dont live in reality
Summary: Tuffnut and Snotlout have a heart-to-heart, post-httyd3.


Tuffnut threw the line of his fishing rod as far as he could. It landed a few meters away from the ship, in the calm and shallow waters of the bay. Snotlout had dropped anchor by the unnamed, uninhabited island because he'd heard rumors of large amounts of fish roaming the waters. They were New Berk's official traders for a few months now, sailing between islands, but in that time they hadn't passed this island before. He'd been fishing for half an hour and hadn't seen a single fish. He was starting to doubt Snotlout's 'rumors'.

Snotlout himself appeared from the hold. 'Hey Snotty,' Tuffnut called, 'I haven't caught anything. Haven't even seen anything. Are you sure this is the island? And,' he added in slight frustration, 'maybe you could help? Whatever you were doing in the hold, it can't have been extremely useful.' Snotlout came to stand beside him, on the edge of the deck, with a filthy handkerchief in one hand and the other on his hip. 'Quit complaining,' he replied, 'we used to have to catch buckets full of fish for our dragons. Now we only need one fish. One!' 'That's not necessarily better.' Tuffnut muttered under his breath. Snotlout averted his gaze. 'You know I miss the dragons too, right?'. There was a confused silence for three seconds. 'I was talking about the fact our entire diet is comprised of fish, but...' Tuffnut noticed the pained look in Snotlout's eyes. 'I know you miss them. We all do, Snotlout.'

Snotlout put his hands on the railing and flung his legs over, to sit beside him. 'No, Hookfang meant something different to me than Belch was to you, I think.' he said, staring at the fishing line. 'You see, and I can't believe I'm telling you this, my parents love me, deep down, I guess. They just fail to show it much. Both, especially my dad, want me to achieve things. Make the Jorgensons proud. There's constant pressure on me. Hookfang was different. He didn't want me to achieve anything great to 'earn' his love. He just... let me on his back and flew with me. Yeah, he also flung me off most of the time, but at the end of the day... He was my dragon and I was his rider. I miss that connection to someone.' Tuffnut didn't dare look at Snotlout, so he stared at the fishing line as well. In moments like these, when Snotlout was at his most vulnerable, he was also capable of vast mood swings, and he didn't want to spark any uncontrolled rage.

'Is that why you went into trades?', he eventually asked Snotlout. 'What do you mean?'. 'Well,' Tuffnut wondered how he should word this, 'I know we joked around about finding fair Viking women at the edges of the archipelago, but if what you say is true, and you miss such a deep connection, you must be serious about finding that special someone.' Snotlout seemed to think about this. 'You know what, maybe that is, unconsciously, why I took this job. But don't you want to find that 'special someone' too?'

Tuffnut wasn't sure whether he liked this turn of the conversation. He tried to figure out how to express his thoughts. 'Yeah, sure, but when the time is right, I suppose? I don't need to rush that. Anyway, I think I agreed to being a trader because I need something to do. A sort of purpose. It used to be pranks and the whole 'worship Loki' thing, then it was Barf and Belch, and the dragons. But now, with the dragons gone and my sister busy with her own life,' he felt a wave of endearment when he thought of Ruffnut, 'I needed another purpose. This is that.', he said, gesturing to the entirety of the ship. Their ship.

Snotlout nodded. 'Purpose, hm?' They remained silent for a while, staring at the surface of the water. A soft summer breeze blew in the sails, pulling the ship's anchor line. It was warm for that time of year. Then Tuffnut chuckled. 'Well, that was a good therapy session'. 'Yeah.' Snotlout agreed, grinning. Right at that moment, the fishing line pulled taught. 'A fish!', they exclaimed simultaneously. Tuffnut pulled the fishing rod, trying to take the fish in. Snotlout grasped a bucket from the deck and held it up. As Tuffnut pulled the fish over the railing and Snotlout caught it in the bucket, they looked at each other. 'We're as good a team as ever.' Snotlout said, proud of himself and the twitching fish he was holding. 'Now, my friend, you know that is not true,' Tuffnut replied, in his theatrical voice, 'we have messed up enough in the past. But I feel we shall be the best traders New Berk has ever had.'

... 'Tuff, we're the only traders New Berk has ever had...'


End file.
